Quotation from the NY Times story: Several clergy members in the region said they were under pressure to demonstrate their loyalty to the Communist Party. Some churches, for example, have begun extolling Mr. Xi’s campaign to promote “core socialist values” — a slogan meant to offer a secular belief system that bolsters the party’s legitimacy.

Another quotation: A senior church leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he and others had agreed to take down the cross because they feared the church would be demolished if they did not. People were on the verge of losing their jobs, he added, and church elders felt they had no choice but to call on parishioners to give in.

China’s Communist Party has stepped up its campaign to control religion in the country, jailing several influential church leaders and tearing down crosses against the protests of the country’s 46 million Christians.

A report released by the Human Rights Watch, a New York-based nongovernmental organization that tracks levels of freedom and treatment of citizens in different countries, found that China, “systematically curtails a wide range of fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion.”

In China, only five “approved” religions are recognized — although the country as a whole is officially atheist — by the government, and followers are only allowed to practice their religion in designated areas at specific times.

In 2015, China led a months-long campaign to tear down publicly visible crosses from churches in Zhejiang province, known as the Christian center of China for its high concentration of Chinese Protestants. U.S.-based Christian rights group ChinaAid reported that 90 percent of crosses in Zhejiang have been torn down, and some churches have been completely demolished, according to Radio Free Asia.

Zhejiang has not been alone as a target of Chinese authorities; religious followers in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang and Tibet were all targeted in 2015, according to ChinaAid’s 2015 report.

“Large numbers of house churches have been shut down, large numbers of pastors, church workers and believers have been detained, while church property has been confiscated,” the report said, according to Radio Free Asia. “The government is also extending its campaign for sinification of Christianity nationwide. The aim is to harmonize Christianity with socialism, whether it be in the fabric of church buildings or in the missionary work they carry out.”

Several influential pastors have been jailed, including Zhang Xiuhong, deacon at the Guiyang Huoshi Church, who was detained on July 28 and is now faces charges of “running an illegal business” in her role as the person in charge of the church’s finances. Huoshi pastor Li Zhiguo also continues to be held in prison, charged with “deliberately leaking state secrets.”

Earlier in February, the Chinese Communist Party banned its members from following any religion, even after they retire from public life. Religious activity, as described in a campaign by President Xi Jinping, is seen as a harmful foreign influence in the country.

China remains one of the most complicated countries on the World Watch List as it is multi-faceted and incredibly diverse. While a considerable portion of the country’s persecution is suffered by small groups of Christian converts among the Tibetans and the Muslim Uighurs, Christians among the main Han majority face continuing restrictions as well. While the campaign of breaking down crosses in the province Zhejiang seems to have come to an end, church meetings continue to be disrupted and stopped. Authorities see the meetings as threats when foreigners, media or large groups of people are involved, one example being in the province Guangdong. The curbing of reporting and social media after explosions in Tianjin in August 2015 also serve to limit Christian freedoms. The government’s goal of maintaining power and social harmony includes the control of all religions, including the quickly growing Christian minority.

There is also persecution of anyone who seeks basic human rights:

Chinese authorities hold disabled rights lawyer under house arrest.

Photo: Disabled Chinese rights lawyer Ni Yulan sits on a wheelchair during her interview with Reuters at their home in Beijing October 6, 2013. Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon.

Ni, who was left wheelchair-bound by a police beating in 2002 after filming the forced demolition of a client’s home, added that she is likely to be evicted from her home, but plainclothes police would not allow her to leave to search for a new apartment.

China’s leadership has detained or imprisoned dozens of rights lawyers in a widespread crackdown on dissent since President Xi Jinping took power.

Ni has been jailed repeatedly, first in 2002 and then again in 2008 after she defended the rights of residents evicted from their homes to make way for Beijing’s 2008 Summer Olympics. (Full Reuters news report.)

Authorities prevented Ni from traveling late last month to receive the State Department’s International Women of Courage Award, which the department says is given to female advocates of human rights, justice and gender equality. Beijing police could not be reached for comment. China’s Foreign Ministry has said exit-entry authorities acted in accordance with Chinese law in the case.